When it Rains, it Pours
by Nirbrian
Summary: Through thick and thin, the Hamada brothers are there for each other, even when circumstances are no less than grotesque. When Hiro contracts a stomach bug, Tadashi does not hesitate to care for him. It just seems to be Murphy's law when things don't go as planned. Sickfic, vomit warning (not too graphic). Published 1 out of 2 or 3


The dim light of the bedside lamp was enough for Tadashi to comfortably flip through the pages of his book. It was late, and he knew he would need to stop reading to go to sleep lest he desire to be groggy during class the next day, which is why he was grateful to be interrupted by the sound of Hiro's footsteps entering their loft bedroom. The younger boy had, Tadashi assumed, been in the workshop for hours as per usual, tweaking his bots for fights. "Finally decided to call it a night?" He laughed lightly, shutting the hardcover in his hands.

He expected a sarcastic jab, but as soon as Hiro's voice reached his ears, concern crashed over him. "Tadashi, I don't feel so good," came the gravelly moan.

Tadashi quickly set his book aside, his heart seizing in worry as his eyes gauged his brother's condition. The young adolescent was pale as the moon, cheeks flushed and sweaty, and he was visibly shaking as he leaned upon the wall for support, hand on his stomach. As Tadashi began to climb off his bed, he heard Hiro start to gag, and quickly grabbed the wastebasket. "Hang on, hang on...!"

In a flash, Tadashi was standing at his brother's side, holding the bin underneath Hiro's mouth, though he was not quite quick enough to avoid a small bit of vomit that had leaked just before the barrel was in place. He did his best not to cringe at the grotesque warmth it left on his hand. He instead used his other hand to gently stroke Hiro's back to ease the distress.

When the mouthful of bile was finished pushing itself up and out, Hiro coughed and spit into the barrel in an attempt to rid his lips of the lingering film of acid. "S-sorry," he whimpered.

Tadashi shook his head. "It's okay, kiddo. Are you all right?"

Hiro groaned, rubbing his stomach tenderly. "I just feel sick."

"Did you tell Aunt Cass?"

"No, I just came up and told you right now."

Tadashi sighed softly, giving Hiro's back a pat before letting his arm drop. However, it quickly moved back to assume its previous position to soothe as Hiro's body gave a small lurch, tensing to vomit again. Nothing came up but a small gagging sound and a cough. "Okay, head to the bathroom. I'm going to activate Baymax and have him take a look at you. I'll be there in a minute."

Hiro nodded, his body spasming with another heave, and quickly shuffled from the room, pressing his palm over his mouth. Tadashi watched him go and listened for the click of the door shutting. With the wastebasket still in his vomit-laden hand, the older Hamada directed the word, "help," to Baymax's idle box. Immediately, it opened, and the large mechanical nurse inflated.

"Hello, Tadashi. How may I be of assistance? I detect no abnormalities in your health," his friendly voice said.

Tadashi shook his head with a halfhearted smile. "Not for me, buddy. Hiro's not feeling too well. Can you take a look at him for me?"

"Of course."

After leading Baymax out of the bedroom and to the bathroom, Tadashi knocked on the door lightly before opening it. The sight of his younger sibling's shaking, sweating form laying over the toilet and panting with a miserable expression caused his chest to tighten. Tadashi placed the barrel on the countertop and quickly washed his hands of vomit. The barrel would have to wait to be cleaned. Helping his brother was more important. He walked to Hiro and knelt next to him, laying his hand between the boy's shoulder blades.

Baymax waddled into the narrow room, stopping a few inches away from where Hiro was trying to catch his breath. "Hello, Hiro. You seem to be in distress."

Hiro rolled his eyes. "You think?"

"I will scan you now." There was a brief pause before Baymax spoke again. "Scan complete. Your temperature and antibody levels are elevated. Your symptoms include stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, and fever. Diagnosis: rotavirus gastroenteritis. Treatments include, a pain reliever and fever reducer, such as ibuprofen or Advil, hydration, rest, and physical comfort." The huggable robot moved to Hiro and gave his head a pat. "There, there. You will be all right."

Tadashi looked up at his creation with a relieved smile, glad they had a diagnosis. It helped settle his mind, knowing for certain it was nothing too serious. "Thanks, Baymax. We're satisfied with our care."

"Please, call upon me if you require assistance again," Baymax offered before stepping out to deactivate at his charging port. Tadashi got up to shut the door for privacy (but mostly to spare Aunt Cass the noise and odor) and then returned to Hiro's side. He exhaled deeply, a gentle expression softening his features. "I figured it was something like that. It's been going around lately. Gogo was absent all last week because of it. You might have picked it up from her when we hung out Saturday night."

Hiro coughed, flushing the dirty water away after wiping his mouth with a piece of toilet paper. "Ugh, great. Remind me to thank her next time she's over," he rasped sarcastically.

Tadashi laughed softly and gave Hiro's back a quick pat. "Feeling okay to head to bed?"

Laying his cheek on his arm resting over the toilet seat, Hiro groaned and shook his head. "Not yet. I feel like I'm gonna puke again."

"All right. Take as long as you need."

And time it took. It was no less than a half an hour later when the nausea finally ebbed enough for the retching to stop. By the time he was done vomiting and and ready to go back to their bedroom, Hiro's throat was burning, and exhaustion weighed him down. It was as if he had been vomiting all the energy his body had contained, and there was none left for movement. The only motion of his body was his breathing and shivering. He was grateful for Tadashi's warm hand rubbing his back the entire time. It facilitated the difficult process of relaxing.

When Hiro's vomiting had paused for about ten minutes, Tadashi thought it a good time to ask again whether his brother was calm enough to part with the commode. "Ready to go to bed now, kiddo?"

Eyes closed, Hiro nodded without saying a word. His tired mind was already half asleep. He made no motion to move, however, and Tadashi seemed to have expected as much, for he picked Hiro up gently, making sure his head was resting on his shoulder, then took him to bed.

Softly, he set Hiro onto the mattress, pulling the blankets over the young genius's shivering body. Hiro instinctively curled into the source of warmth and comfort, and was asleep within moments. Tadashi smiled and quietly made his way back to the bathroom to clean the wastebasket and acquire a few preparations. He emptied and rinsed the barrel thoroughly, then gathered a facecloth. He wet the fabric in the sink before heading back to his brother. He placed the trash bin next to Hiro's bed and placed the cool cloth on his forehead to help reduce the fever. It had been too risky to have him swallow medicine, fearing it may just come back up.

Before heading to bed himself, Tadashi went downstairs and filled a cup and a bowl with water. Hiro would need to stay hydrated and the cloth would need to be re-chilled periodically. He had informed Aunt Cass of their situation and his desire to stay home with Hiro to care for him while she ran the cafe. The kind woman was grateful and sorry for her poor nephew.

Tadashi slept for about two hours before he was awakened by harsh coughing that was followed by retching. He took a moment to shake off the fatigue, rubbing his stinging eyes, and trudged over to Hiro's side of the room. The young teen was sitting up with the barrel hugged to his chest. "Hey, buddy," Tadashi greeted softly as he sat down on his brother's bed and began to rub his back gently.

"S-sorry," Hiro choked thickly before another gurgle ran up his throat and into the bin.

Tadashi shook his head. "Don't worry, little bro. You're sick. You can't help it." He stayed by his younger sibling's side, rubbing his back and shushing him with whispered coos until around three in the morning when Hiro's stomach settled enough for him to sleep again. Tadashi had kept massaging Hiro's back until he was certain the boy was deep in slumber.

After dragging his tired body off of Hiro's bed, Tadashi cleaned the wastebasket and also fell back to sleep after returning it to Hiro's bed, facedown on top of his blankets, too tired to care.

When Tadashi awoke again, the room was bright, and Hiro was still soundly sleeping, for which he was grateful. With a yawn, he slowly climbed out of bed and checked the wastebasket to see if he had slept through another spell of nausea. To his relief, the bin was clean, and the glass of water was empty. Hiro had kept down some water, which was reassuring. Concerns at ease, Tadashi quietly slipped downstairs to eat a late breakfast.

Hiro slept most of the afternoon, but around two o'clock his stomach decided it was time to heave up whatever it contained. Because he had not eaten since the day before, and had already thrown up whatever had still lingered in his belly last night, only small amounts of bile and water came up. It was retching more than anything else, trying to get rid of something that was not there.

Tadashi had been right there to offer comfort and support, of course. He could tell Hiro was in pain, for his face was bright red and tears were pooling in his eyes. Under his hand, he could feel how tense Hiro's back was. The retching was abrasive, and it sounded as if he could hardly breathe in between the convulsions of his stomach. "Sh... Try to relax," Tadashi cooed. "Breathe, breathe."

Hiro gasped and coughed weakly, panting for breath through a severely irritated trachea. When he finally caught his breath, crippling exhaustion swam through his dizzy head. With his body like lead, he leaned into Tadashi, groaning in agony. Vomiting had not alleviated the nausea and stomach pain. Hiro did not mind vomiting if he felt better afterward, but that was unfortunately not the case this time around. The knots in his belly were tight and seeming to continuously squeeze smaller and stronger.

Tadashi kept rubbing his back. "There you go, just breathe. You're all right," he soothed, using his other hand to move the trash bin back onto the floor. Hiro responded by instinctively huddling closer to the body of comfort providing heat that his own seemed not to retain. Tadashi moved his arm to hug Hiro around the shoulders and felt his forehead. The unusual warmth elicited a sigh.

"You okay?" The older brother asked gently.

Hiro nodded, breathing heavy still, eyes closed and face sweaty.

"Good. I'm going to get you a dose of medicine to tame that fever of yours, and then you can go back to sleep, okay?"

Again, Hiro only nodded.

Carefully, Tadashi eased his sibling back down and covered his trembling frame with the blanket. He grabbed the bucket to wash while he got the medication in the cabinet. He returned quickly with a glass of water, a couple pills, and the freshly cleaned wastebasket. "Here you go, buddy. Take these and then you can sleep. I know that's all you want to do right now."

Grimacing in annoyance, Hiro slowly peeled open his eyes and fumbled for the pills being offered. His arm was heavy and his weak muscles burned in protest. He was grateful when Tadashi took his hand and stabilized it, dropping the medication into his palm in the process. After Hiro placed the pills in his mouth, Tadashi helped him sip some water and left the rest on the bedside table.

Smiling as Hiro's eyes immediately closed to sleep, Tadashi reached down and gently stroked his hair. "Sweet dreams, kiddo. Feel better when you wake up."


End file.
